Top Chinese Refiners Not Booking Iranian Oil For November

China’s largest refiners, state-held Sinopec and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), haven’t booked any crude oil cargoes from Iran for November due to fears that in doing so, they would be in breach of the U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil returning in less than two weeks, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting two people with direct knowledge of the plans. The key concern for the state-owned refiners is the uncertainty over whether Iran’s Chinese customers would obtain waivers from the sanctions, Reuters’s sources said. China, Iran’s single-largest oil customer, has said that it would not stop buying Iranian oil despite U.S. efforts to have the Iranian exports down to ‘zero.’ But Beijing was also said to have agreed to refrain from increasing its oil purchases from Iran. Iran, for its part, is keen to keep its single biggest oil customer when U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports kick in. Analysts […]